Cheap Street Chevelle

The theme of Car Craft's project Cheap Street Chevelle has been simple: Build a fairly potent street machine on a real world budget using real world parts. We’ve skipped the aluminum cylinder blocks, big ol’ honking 14-71 superchargers and clutchless Pro Stock-style manual transmissions. What we did opt for is a low-buck iron-block 355 V8 with a hydraulic camshaft, fed by a 750 Quadrajet carb. A TH350 automatic transmission, mild 3.73:1 gears, 3000-stall converter and Hotchkis rear suspension get the power to the ground. So far, Cheap Street has run a best "all engine" quarter-mile pass of 13.18 at 100.23 mph and 12.20s with a 125hp dose of NOS Super Power Shot nitrous oxide injection. For all of our testing, the Chevelle has been powered by pump gasoline, run through full exhaust and driven to and from the track.

Now that the car is getting more serious, we have been getting letters asking for a story on how to install a basic rollbar setup in a street machine. CC reader Sean Florea wrote, "I have a '65 Chevelle that runs in the 12s just like project Cheap Street Chevelle. I want to make the car safer by adding a rollcage but don't want to install a 12-point Super Gas-style cage. Maybe CC could install a basic four- or six-point cage in Cheap Street and show us readers how easy or difficult the job is."

Once again, ask and you shall receive. This month we show you how to install a six-point rollbar from S&W Race Cars along with upgrading the Chevelle with SFI-approved seatbelts from JAZ Products.

To ensure that we installed our S&W rollbar correctly, we turned to M&J Auto Body for guidance. The M&J crew transformed our Chevelle from junker to jewel in last year's Paint & Body special, so we knew that they were good fabricators.